Careers

How A Little Creativity Can Land You Your Dream Job

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How a little creativity can land you your dream job.

The last few months have been a good time for job seekers in the U.S. Statistics show there are more job openings than unemployed people throughout the country, a historical rarity. This means that there are plenty of opportunities out there, as well as possible leverage for existing employees, to raise their pay. Another interesting figure is that recently, the voluntary quit rate hit a high it hadn’t seen in 17 years, suggesting a lot of confidence that those greener pastures are out there.

With this in mind, there are more chances than ever for people to find their “dream job,” whether that dream revolves around a location, vocation, or income bracket. However, it’s essential for would-be workers to use every means possible to get their foot in the door. Just because there are many jobs available doesn’t mean there are many of your dream jobs available.

Why You Need To Be Creative In The Job Market

When it comes to working towards getting your dream job, depending on your niche, you may be dealing with a lot of competition, and in some cases, your skill and experience may not be enough to match up. For example, a common practice when looking to fill a position is to favor people who have been referred to the company over those who have submitted an application. While this may seem unfair, one needs to look at this from the employer’s perspective. Any new hire that comes on and doesn’t work out represents a failed investment of money, time, and effort for training and such. As a result, wouldn’t you want to try to minimize this risk?

This is why employers love referrals and often encourage their current employees to provide them. By bringing on someone that a trusted employee can vouch for, it’s more likely that the employee will be a good fit. With the deck potentially stacked against you in this regard, it makes sense why you may feel the need to try to go that extra mile to appeal to an employer.

Applying Creativity To The Application Process

Creativity is a trait that a lot of employers value. Even if you aren’t in a creative field, there are always going to be unique problems and issues that a creative mind is most likely to find solutions for. As a result, when trying to apply for a job, it’s key to try to demonstrate that creativity wherever possible, as well as use your creativity to demonstrate other key traits that the employer may be looking for.

To start, let’s revisit the referral issue. You’re not going to be able to have a long-time friend or relative at every company, but that doesn’t mean you can’t make a connection before submitting your application. In some cases, your dream job may mean working with a certain company. In this case, it pays to be proactive. Spend time interacting with people who work within the company and try to start a professional relationship. This can be as simple as interacting with social media content that they put out. If you build this up, when you see a potential job interview opening up, you can ask your new connection if it’s possible for them to refer you for the position.

Another creative way you want to try to improve your chances is by bolstering your online profile on sites like LinkedIn, especially if you are working with a recruiter. One key thing to do is solicit a few recommendations from your professional circle and be specific about it. Tell the person specifically what traits or skills you want them to showcase in their recommendation and give them some examples of things they can mention.

We should also talk about portfolio pages. For people in creative fields, a portfolio page is essential in order to showcase your skills, but you want to be smart with how you curate the materials you put on the page. Ideally, you should not only be putting your best work out there but also a good variety of work, including some options from off-the-beaten-path if possible. Why take this step? A lot of the time, hiring managers are going through hundreds of potential applicants, and having interesting work in your portfolio can help you stand out from a sea of other people with similar qualifications. One way to do this is by adding a video to your portfolio. The content doesn’t have to be anything elaborate, but this instantly shows that you have some degree of tech-savvy and communications skills—which carry over just about anywhere.

Tips For Nailing Your Job Interview

Putting together a unique “hook” for conversation in your portfolio or resume is a great way to make your job interview memorable—for all the right reasons. We’ve all heard a few horror stories about job applicants who end up doing the opposite, but there are some ways that you can infuse creativity into your job interview without alienating your potential employers.

In general, before trying to apply anything to a job interview, you want to get an idea of what the company culture is like. For example, showcasing your graphic design skills on your resume may be something that one company would love while another wouldn’t. The basic idea is to add a personal, but appropriate, touch to your interaction.

One particular way that you can try to stand out is to try to add some sort of added value or recommendation during the interview. The key to do this is making sure that you don’t come off as arrogant, but as someone who really wants to help. Again, knowing what the company and your role are about is key here. For example, if you’re applying as a web developer and discover a minor glitch on a company website, take a quick moment in the interview to mention what you see and offer a solution. This shows three things:
1. You’ve done research into the company.
2. You care enough to offer a solution for free.
3. You have the expertise to offer a working solution.

Understanding The Advertising Job World

Even compared to other fields, advertising can be quite competitive to break into. The good news is that in many ways, the job application process is uniquely tailored to showing off your skills. After all, advertising is all about getting a customer to buy into a product or service, so what better way to showcase your ability by effectively selling yourself as an employee?

In general, much of the advice that we’ve talked about applies when talking about breaking into advertising. Ideally, you’re going to want to have an idea of the type of ad agency you want to work for and tailor your portfolio to the type of content and areas that they service. One final piece of specific advice is that you want to connect your creative skill to tangible results. Show how your content has helped the profit margins of past clients.

In addition, it’s important to understand that advertising jobs don’t run in a vacuum. A freelancer is going to have a very different schedule than someone at a smaller ad agency, which, in turn, will be a very different experience than at a larger agency. If you are an advertising job seeker looking for a place to work, consider Glint Advertising. We’re looking for professionals who are interested in learning and willing to take on new challenges to create effective content and problem solve for clients. Reach out to us today to learn what opportunities are available.

Industry News

The Benefits of an Agency vs Hiring an In-House Team

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Benefits of Utilizing an Agency

As many business experts and gurus will tell you, part of being a success in business is recognizing that you can’t do it all.  Developing the skills to delegate is critical. This allows you to have the opportunity to not only take unneeded work off your plate but to use your employees/team to the best of their abilities. Overall, this means more efficiency and fewer headaches.

However, the delegation strategy does have its limits, namely when your business has a task in front of them that’s outside the skillset of your current team. This isn’t an indictment of your team, but a basic reality, especially when it comes to something like marketing. For example, effective web copy and content requires knowledge of writing, while on average, many workplaces need more people with effective writing skills. In the same vein, creating visual content may require knowledge of graphic design, which your team might not have.

At this point, most businesses are at an impasse and have to make the decision on whether to hire an in-house team to handle these tasks or delegate a step further and bring on an outside agency. The notion of having your own team to tackle these specialized issues may sound good — but for most businesses, the agency is the better option. Here are some of the key reasons why.

How Using An Agency Helps You

A Better Financial Setup

It makes sense to try and start with the bottom line, right? Part of the reason that businesses start putting together larger advertising and marketing campaigns in the first place is that they believe they are going to get a return on their investment. Part of the issue here, though, is that a lot of people don’t understand what that actual investment is in the first place. At first glance, you may think that having your team will actually save you money, right? Not necessarily, at least—not if you want the best. Look at some of the average figures for key marketing positions:

  • Marketing Manager Salary: $120,000 per year
  • Social Media Manager Salary: $50,000 per year
  • SEO Manager Salary: $60,000 per year

Depending on the size of your business and your needs, you may actually need someone in each of these roles, as well as people to work under them, which means even more financial investment. On top of that, you’re not factoring in the cost of setting them up with the tools they need to do their jobs. For example, a basic ad campaign may require a stock photo website subscription and Adobe Creative Suite. SEO experts need keyword research platforms like Ahrefs to create an effective strategy. Combine all these together, and you could be paying thousands on tools alone to support your teams.

By comparison, while you may be paying a monthly fee to an agency, that fee is inclusive of both the work of the agency, as well as their tools. If you don’t anticipate constantly putting out new campaigns, you’re virtually guaranteed to pay less overall to use an agency rather than getting a team of your own together. Some businesses try to have their cake and eat it too, working with solo freelancers or bringing on less experienced candidates to fill roles on their team. This has its drawbacks as well.

Better Financial Set-Up

Stronger Pool Of Talent

Just to be clear, there are many qualified freelancers out there to help with your marketing. The issue is that while they may not cost as much as an employee, good freelancers know their worth, and you will have to pay substantially. In addition, it may be better to bring on an agency’s team to try and handle your workload rather than to try and put it on one person, no matter what their qualifications.

The same thing applies for people who try to get the best bargain possible when trying to fill out their own teams. Yes, that fresh college graduate or person getting back into the workforce may be willing to be your SEO manager for $30,000 rather than $50,000, but what expertise are they bringing with them? Ultimately, if you get cheaper talent on your team, but end up not being happy with the work they do, then you’re losing money. This isn’t just due to paying the employee you brought on, but having to bring on another one to fix what they started. Not all small businesses have the budget to take that loss.

Stronger Talent Pool

Time Saved

Going hand-in-hand with this is time. The fact of the matter is that building an effective team from scratch takes time, no matter what type of skills they individually bring to the table. You need to figure out how to manage them, how they will communicate with each other, and take the time to bring them up to speed with what their product is and how you want it advertised.

With a marketing agency, you save a lot of this time because the procedures have already been established on their end. All you need to do is start by explaining what you want.  They will have the skill set to put the rest into action. The only other time you need to spend is giving approval for the final product.

Industry Insight

As a final point, an in-house team can easily fall into the trap of getting tunnel vision. Inside the company bubble, people may only be exposed to certain materials or frames of thinking, when diversity in mindsets is proven to be a benefit. This is a place where an agency can help. Because an agency is an outside entity, there’s less of a reticence about presenting potential issues or suggestions to issues they see with your current marketing. What you choose to do with that information is up to you, but having it is the key.

Another thing that you get when working with an agency is a better awareness of trends that may affect your marketing. Your in-house team will have their noses to the grindstone, and while this is great, it means there’s little time to stay on top of trends and technology. For example, could a Google algorithm change affect your SEO strategy? Is a new form of advertising taking hold of your target demographic? Agencies need to know this to compete, and they can share this wisdom with you if you retain their services.

What Should I Look For In My Agency?

With all this said, it’s clear that an agency offers a faster and more effective way for companies to get marketing and advertising initiatives off the ground compared to hiring and training an in-house team. With this mentioned, it’s also important that you do your due diligence in choosing what type of agencies you work with. Ideally, you’re going to want an agency that not only has a proven track record, but also is known for helping put together effective content in your niche. This is what makes Glint Advertising a perfect match. Whether you are still in those skeletal planning stages or ready to take action, we have the expertise and experience to make your advertising plans a reality. Reach out to us for a free consultation today.

Digital Marketing, Integrated Marketing

Why Marketing Matters For Co-op Success

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Co-op Marketing Fort Worth

For many businesspeople, marketing is one of the scariest parts of actually running things on their own. A lot of people become entrepreneurs or rise in a larger business due to their dedication to the niche or type of work, not marketing itself. As a result, there are a lot of unknowns, and as we can see, there are many high-profile marketing blunders that can not only drain your wallet, but cut into your customer base.

But what if there was a way to try and minimize this risk, and find a way to pool resources for advertising that can stand up against the larger names in your niche? What if there was a way to potentially use the audience and name of one of those larger niches to increase your own chances of success? This is the basic principle behind co-op marketing, something that may help get your business to the next level.

The Basics on Co-op Marketing

In essence, the idea behind co-op marketing is a smaller company putting money into an advertising budget, and having that money matched by a corporate partner. One of the biggest examples of this is car dealerships. If a car specializes in a certain carmaker’s offerings, they may get some advertising money from the carmaker themselves. The reasoning from the carmaker is that they have someone out there supporting their brand, so it makes sense to try and put some money their way.

Think of it this way: it’s been proven statistically that there is a growing interest in local advertising as opposed to massive corporate advertising. This is for a number of reasons, from cynicism on the part of the consumers to a basic interest in supporting local businesses. From the larger advertising partner’s perspective, it makes sense to try and financially support a smaller company’s advertising efforts. They still get the sale they want, but target a consumer who may tune out their commercials or radio ads.

There are other common examples of co-op marketing you may see every day without thinking. For example, in a shopping center or mall, you’re likely to see advertisements for each retailer in said center. In addition, they may also put out advertisements in the local newspaper for popular holidays or other times where there’s a significant spike in shopping. Again, this works to the benefit of the larger company. It’s a lot easier to advertise your product to certain groups in certain regions if you have first-hand knowledge of what they like. No one knows this better than local retailers.

Digital Marketing Dallas

Why Bother With Co-op Marketing?

Co-op marketing is a very versatile option, but at this point, we’ve only covered the benefit to the larger companies working with smaller ones. However, the smaller company also sees a variety of different benefits from entering a co-op marketing partnership.

The major benefit, especially for small businesses, is how co-op marketing can drastically reduce the potential money you need to set aside for marketing endeavors. On average, a manufacturer will pay anywhere from 50% to 100% of the cost of placing a local ad. Not only does this allow you to reap the benefits of exposure to a larger audience, but also not have to worry about affecting your cash flow to do so.

Speaking of exposure, this tends to work in two different positive ways for the smaller company. For one, there’s the sheer matter of volume and reach, the fact that more advertising dollars mean that you can put together a more extensive and effective campaign. However, working with a larger brand and having your name associated with theirs also lends an air of legitimacy to your business. The sight of your business’s name next to an internationally known manufacturer is a clear sign of success.

Another way that the smaller businesses benefit is from knowledge and osmosis. Large, global companies pour massive amounts of money into studying advertising and their consumer base in order to get an idea of what they respond to most. This allows the smaller companies a chance to learn some effective strategies for a fraction of the cost.

As a final add-on point, while these are the most common co-op marketing relationships you see, it’s also possible for multiple small businesses to try and band together to do something similar. For example, two non-competitive businesses with a history of working together may pool together advertising money for a campaign which highlights both. The trade is that you don’t have the benefits of the resources of a larger company, but there is more freedom in what you can do, which we will get to in a moment.

Co-op Marketing

The Key To Effective Co-op Marketing

When it comes to co-op marketing, what many people describe as a drawback is the fact that you’ve committed to the advertising standards of whatever entity you choose to work with. This can play out in terms of:

  • Having a certain standard of advertising quality
  • Utilizing only a specific type of advertising
  • Hidden requirements
  • Limits on what the advertising money provided by the larger entity can be used for

This isn’t always a bad thing. Remember, larger companies make a lot of investment in understanding what works in advertising, so it may behoove you to try and follow their lead. However, no one wants to be caught off-guard, so the first thing you want to do in co-op advertising is getting a clear understanding of the rules with an attorney.

The other important piece of this is making sure that your company’s internal structure is ready to take on the added workload of a proper advertising campaign. Many smaller companies may have a small ad here or there, but it’s a big step up to regularly produce print or web advertising, even if you have the money. Make sure you have the marketing personnel either on staff or hired to do the bulk of the actual planning and formulation.

Another important key is making sure that you have open lines of communication with all the members of your co-op. This is going to be essential for a variety of reasons. For one, you need to be able to understand quickly whether or not your partner approves or does not approve of any advertising material before you send it out. In addition, communication makes it easier for them to give you general advice as needed. However, don’t think that you’re bound to whatever they say. For example, digital marketing is essential for advertising success. If you read or learn about a concept that you think makes sense to use, bring it up. Remember, larger companies want to use the up-close experience their smaller partners have as well.

Because there are several different companies or entities putting their money together for co-op advertising, it’s that much more important that you put together a proper formal strategy that allows everyone to benefit. This means not just recruiting professional help for putting together branding materials, but also at the thought stage. This is where Glint Advertising is so helpful. We understand how advertising has evolved, as well as the mechanisms that drive consumer response. Whether you’re ready to start a campaign or just want a consultation, we are here to help guide you down a path of successful marketing and advertising strategies.

Digital Marketing

Essential steps to properly engage with your target audience

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Audience Engagement To successfully grow a business, you need to connect with the target audience associated with your growth plan, especially in cases where you are starting a new business. You’ll need to have a firm idea of who your customer base is as this is half the battle in getting your brand noticed. You also need to be aware of how to properly engage with your audience and how to strengthen and maintain the relationships you form with customers, to keep them onboard and attract new customers.

In the article below, we’ll go over the critical steps you need to take for effectively identifying and adequately engaging with the right audience for your specific products or services.

Researching Your Target Audience
To properly engage with the audience for your brand, you need to know their precise interests and who they are. There are many things you should be considering when researching the perfect customers for your products or services. The most effective approach for accomplishing this is to develop a market segmentation plan.

Market segmentation will allow you to find the key factors driving your target audience. This research can include many things depending on what you are trying to sell, but generally, it comes down to a few things for most businesses:

Geographic Segmentation: Depending on your services this can be a significant factor and defines precisely where your customers work and play.

Demographic Segmentation: Things like age, gender, job, and income. These are big for everyone and are things to focus on in any marketing strategy.

Psychographic Segmentation: These are the more niche factors, like lifestyle, personality, and customer values. All crucial things to consider for any business.

Once you’ve been able to answer these questions and those unique to your business, you’ll be well on your way to understanding your audience fully. Once you do, you can properly engage with them to increase brand awareness and overall sales.

Man Looking At ROI

Engaging with Your Audience
Now that you have a firm idea of who you are trying to target, we can start engaging with them. Building a relationship with a customer takes time and effort and gaining a customer’s trust is beyond valuable. Customers who are loyal and trust the brand they are buying from will provide you with repeat sales and word of mouth marketing on social networks and within friend and business groups.

For these reasons, it is a good idea to focus on customer service and engagement, two things that go hand in hand when it comes to marketing.

When engaging with your audience, whether it be email, a social post, or replying to a customer on the phone, keep these things in mind:

Be Consistent: If you are only hitting your goals with your engagement every once in a while, you won’t make it very far. While people do remember the good things, they really remember the bad, so make sure everything is always consistent with your brand. Consistency in brand applies to service, the tone of voice, and graphical style. Customers want to feel like they know you, if you are constantly changing it up, they won’t get that feeling from your business.

Be Accessible: If you are going to take the time to engage with your customers via comments, content efforts, email, or in-store, you need to be doing it in a way that resonates with them. An excellent way to accomplish this is being accessible. Accessibility means making your content and messages easy to understand, and if you can, engaging and entertaining.

Be Personal: When communicating with your target audience, avoid sounding like a robot. Go out of your way to act as if you were talking to a friend. Cater all your responses directly to the needs and personality of the person you are dealing with. Communication is a great place to show your dedication to your customers.

Lady Choosing Technology

Use the Same Platforms Your Customers Do
If you are planning to utilize social media and content marketing to try and boost engagement as you should be, then you need to know where your customers tend to spend their time online. Discovering relevant channels will be another step you’ll have to take when doing your research for your target market. If you are running even the best content on the wrong platforms, you are just wasting valuable time and money.

If you are planning on creating your content marketing via social media, be sure to research each platform and find out which your customer base is using, and which would best suit the type of content you want to be using.

For businesses that are trying to tackle emails, personalizing your emails to your target market will be key to success. If your customers don’t tend to interact with their inboxes much, something the younger generations can be known for, then you can also be wasting your efforts here.

If your customers are coming to your website to engage with your business, it would be best to focus the bulk of your efforts into this area. Website content can be the best way to market, as it is completely under your control, where on social media you may have to fit your content into specific guidelines.

Plan your tactics accordingly in this area, and you’ll be well on your way to success. The core steps to engaging apply to all tactics, but make sure you are selecting the appropriate platform, and researching everything before you begin creating content.

Your Business Needs to Engage with Its Audience to be Successful
For you to thrive in highly competitive spaces, you need to be setting yourself apart and building loyalty with your customers. If your audience doesn’t have a good reason to pick you over the other guy, they may jump ship.

Give them excellent customer service, engage with them appropriately, maintain a consistent brand, and you’ll be sure to see improvements in all areas of your business. If you need help engaging customers with your branding, advertising, or marketing, please let us talk with you. Email us at agency@glintadv.com or better yet, give us a call at 817-616-0320.

Industry News, Press Release

Sports Passion Rewarded with Gold!

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Eastfield College Sports Award with Glint Advertising

When Eastfield College provided glint the opportunity to rebrand the athletic department and sports brands for their school, we were excited to get to work. After months of research and concepting, the new brand came to life, and we were incredibly satisfied with the result. The sharp blue and orange colors connected with the existing college brand and the bold bee graphic correlated well with the intensity and passion needed in sports. The cartoonist approach also helped maintain an approachable feeling that could connect with audiences of any age.

Confirmation quickly came that we weren’t the only people that thought it looked great and hit the mark! The design was entered into a sports advertising competition with an astounding result. The brands were assessed by a panel of national sports marketing and advertising professionals based on creativity, marketing execution, and impact. We had high hopes for a positive result in the competition, so high in fact that our hopes were validated by winning the gold medal in our category.

“As an agency, we were ecstatic for our client, and that the hard work of our team was recognized with this honor in the rapidly growing area of sports advertising and marketing,” said Craig Lloyd, President, Glint Advertising. “Furthermore, we are grateful for the opportunity that Eastfield college provided us. We hope to continue receiving recognition for Eastfield and our other clients that showcase the talent and quality in our partnerships.”

Glint has been helping clients define, refine and hone their brand strategy and image since 2000, we would love to talk with you. Email us at agency@glintadv.com or better yet, give us a call at 817-616-0320.